Shooting Stars
by KingdomHeartsEDU
Summary: They say if you make a wish on a shooting star your wish will come true. But lately it seems that Jai's situation with the nightmares and these "creatures" only seem to be getting worse. Follow Jai as he tries to discovers what the darkness is, of his REAL heritage and why his late father remains a mystery when he knew him so well when he was alive.


Prologue: Darkness Nostalgia?

Standing below a weak looking moon, heart-shaped with a bright purplish glow to it, a figure in a black cloak looks up ominously at it.

Kingdom Hearts.

It had been complete. It could have given him and the rest of his men what they truly desired, and to fulfill his life-long plan, had it not been for the _key-bearer_. The hatred for his enemy ran through him to the point where the mere thought of the child's name boils his blood and leaves a bitter taste on his tongue. Oh how he could have destroyed the boy if it weren't for a former vessel of his grasping tightly onto the light within the boy. The "love conquers all" bit that seems to be what everyone was so keen on believing was the ultimate power for humanity.

They are all dead wrong.

But Xemnas, leader of Organization XIII, knew the truth. Friendship and love wasn't the true power in the world. The one true power anybody could obtain from is hate and rage. It's simple really. But why no one else could comprehend that is unknown.

"Love is blind" is what they say. It certainly seems to fit the concept of how and what makes everyone tick. And blinded they be, for everything begins and ends in darkness. Xemnas believed this to be the universe's one and only truth in its entire existence.

A green swirling portal suddenly appears near the Superior and a man dressed in dark ratty clothing that somehow managed to stay together without the fabric turning into dust during sudden movements came up to the head and founder of Organization XIII at a respectable distance.

"Report Senip," Xemnas demanded without looking in the other's direction. "Have the targets been apprehended?"

"Yes sir," Senip responded with a deep, gruff voice that suggested the man was aged to a graying stage.

Xemnas smiles deviously, "Excellent. You can leave them in the-"

"Um, about that sir," Senip interrupted, wringing his hands together nervously. His tone had quaked with anxiety from what he knew was to come of the news he was about to tell. "The targets have kind of, sort of…escaped."

The Superior visibly stiffens. For the first time since Senip arrived Xemnas turns to his companion's direction and steps close enough so he could look down at him from within the depths of his large hood. Bright yellow orbs glared vehemently at his servant, the glare intensified by the dimness caused by the hood pulled over his head.

"What do you mean," Xemnas growls lowly causing Senip to flinch, "that they _escaped_?"

The older man sputtered and stuttered until he managed to get out, "Wh-what I mean is, the three of them together were too much for the containment unit. They were too p-powerful. More powerful than I had anticipated."

Xemnas's yellow colored stare didn't let up and stayed fixated on the shorter shivering man, who shrunk away in fear, as if challenging him to make the situation better than what it sounded.

"But-but the experiment went like you said it would," Senip added. "After the extraction, Nobodies were left in their place, except for the tall one whom had disappeared without a trace. Even with the hearts scattered to Lord knows where, everything else is going according to plan."

The Superior's figure visibly relaxes at the last bit of the news. A dark chuckle escaped from Xemnas. The man removes his hood to reveal the stunning sight of a young man with fair skin, long silver hair and bright yellow eyes. "Excellent," he smiled sinisterly. "As long as there are no diversions, all the pieces should fall right into place. Now, there is a new task I need you to do."

Xemnas gave the dimension traveler a briefing of his next objective that he is supposed to go to a world called 'Lothal' to find someone. Senip was given a detailed description of the target and nods once he receives all the necessary information. Kneeling in submission, the noticeably shorter male accepted this mission.

"And Senip," Xemnas stares down at his servant of darkness, fury yellow intimidating dark brown eyes; "I want this boy alive and intact with very little damage, both physical and mental. If you fail to do either, you will never see your brother again. Do I make myself clear?"

Senip gloomily hung his head at the threat and nods, "Yes sir."

"Good."

That ecstatically evil grin never left the Superior's face even after he turns his back on the servant and dismisses him.

1003

 _Darkness was all he could see, and all he could feel. It was cold. Not in the bone chilling way, just a general coldness one would feel while drinking icy fluids, a frosti for example, or a gentle cool breeze during the autumn season. Except instead of the comfort like that of the friendly winds of Lothal, the wind whipping Jai's short brown hair back as he fell made him feel uncomfortable, insecure, and all alone for he fell with no control over where to go or how to go._

 _The darkness seemed to pull him in farther the longer he stayed there. But Jai Kell didn't want to be there. Anywhere else was fine with him as long as he wasn't in the darkness. Because the more time he spent in it the more his memory seemed slip away. His own face becomes a mystery, his age and name become unknown, and his life would seem like a far off memory. A memory Jai tries desperately to hold onto but fails as it slips through his fingers like sand escaping one grain at a time in a rapid pace of an hourglass of forgetfulness Jai wants nothing more than to shatter it and take back what was rightfully his. Without physical matter to take out his frustration on, Jai was forced to wait out the fall and continue his unwilling journey of forgetting._

 _Just when his mind was almost a blank slate, Jai awoke with a sensation of déjà vu he couldn't quite place. After yawning and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes Jai sat up, with some difficulty, in his bed and peered between the wooden bars looking throughout the room in search of one particular person he wanted upon awakening. He did not see them, and he was thirsty._

 _Jai began looking around his bed for the bottle of water his mother would leave for him in case he was thirsty and she wasn't there. Finding the bottle wasn't too difficult; it was safely tucked into the corner at the foot of his bed in between the mattress and the wooden corner. Jai crawls over to it, takes the bottle out of its confines and immediately starts drinking the crisp room temperature water-he hated cold water-to satisfy his parch little mouth._

 _No more than a minute had past when the door to the bedroom and in came a man with the same hair color as Jai. Jai looks up at him as the man peered over his bed with a warm, heart-melting smile._

 _"_ _Hey, buddy," Jai's father said in a deep soothing voice that sounded very faint-like he was far off in the distance when he was only a few feet away-yet Jai heard him loud and clear, "I heard you chugging that down all the way from the hallway. Did you nap okay?"_

 _Jai smiled around the rubber nipple in his mouth as he stood up giggling. He loved his father's voice and would follow it no matter where it leads him to. That very voice is what would always put him to sleep at night whenever Jai had a nightmare._

 _The father inwardly laughs at his son's optimistic energy so early after waking up. He picks the baby up into his arms and out of the crib, "I've got some good news Jai," he said excitedly to his son, "Mama's not home, so it's just you and me for the next half hour. And do you know what that means?"_

 _Jai had a very vague clue at what that could be, so he quietly awaited his answer with a look of curiosity._

 _"_ _It means that we get a have a little father/son bonding time," said Jai's father, he walks out of the bedroom through the hallway and into the living room of the fair sized apartment. Jai was set down on his small feet next to the couch._

 _The toddler watched as his father took a few steps back to hold his arm out and a flash of light appeared and then disappeared leaving a gray intricately designed weapon in his hand. He swung the unique sword a couple of times in the air in demonstration. Jai squealed in delight and reached out to grab it with his little hand but it was too far away, he was too short to reach it. The man chuckles at his son's eagerness to hold his prized possession._

 _"_ _Here," Jai stops his grabbing motions as his father kneels down beside him, "how about a trade?" A large hand was held out to Jai for the baby bottle of water which was handed over almost immediately. The brown-haired boy then started reaching for the object in his father's hand again. Little hands succeeded in its mission. His small fingers barely wrapped around the black handle in between the considerably larger hand that still gripped onto the black handle for support._

 _"_ _I'm going to let go now, okay?" he said to Jai, "so, prepare yourself." The brunette of a man slowly released his grip on the handle, moving his fingers underneath the middle of the blade to help his son balance it in his clumsy hold._

 _The weapon was pretty heavy for the baby, but Jai use much of his strength to lift the strange sword. With a cute grunt and a heave, Jai attempted to swing it to his left side, away from his father making a light swooshing sound only audible to those of sensitive hearing. Jai was praised anyway for his effort._

 _"_ _Great job Jai," his father ruffled the boy's short brown hair in playful affection, "at this rate you will become a master by-" the man had stopped his sentence short and his smile fell from his face. An expression of shock and horror took over, his breath quickening as he almost frantically searched for something. The mystical weapon disappeared from the toddler's hands only to reappear in his father's possession. The man took a battle stance in front of his son keeping his eyes peeled for any sight of the invisible danger lurking in the shadows. Jai would have been more confused at his father's action if it weren't for the bad feeling the he had in his gut. There was something in their home, they both knew, something dark, menacing, and Jai began crying from how cold and scared he felt by-whatever it is._

 _For a full moment the entire apartment was silent except for Jai's crying, with the toddler clinging desperately to his father's pant leg, as his father waited for the threat to make an appearance by materializing either out of thing air or crawl up and out of the dark corners of the living room._

 _And crawl out of the dark corners they did._

 _Large shadow-like creatures phased through dark brown carpeted floors. Yellow eyes, dead and primal, bored directly into Jai's glassy innocent brown eyes with a hunger that could be sensed from miles away. Without warning, the creature gave a leap towards Jai-only to be knocked out of existence by a single swing of the man's silver blade. Many more made an effort to assault them but were quickly slaughtered expertly by the master swordsman whom stood his battle stance carefully with his son clung to his right leg._

 _The shadows were now coming faster than Jai's father could kill them, forcing him to take his son into his arms and flee. However, an invisible barrier was suddenly up and activated before they could reach the door. The windows seemed to have been the salvation they seek only to find another barrier that stopped just a centimeter from the panes as if to tease the duo that escape was so close and yet so far away. The safe haven that was the outside world of Jai and his mother's home planet Lothal where the open space of nature would have been of most help to evade the darkness plaguing their home._

 _Panting and near the point of giving up, a swooshing sound was heard behind them. A man dressed in all black standing in front of a portal to darkness is what greeted them upon turning back and away from the barrier protected window that seemed to mock them the more they looked at it._

 _The hooded man's body language suggested that he was speaking but Jai couldn't hear a word he said. He was too scared to think anything other than holding onto his father for guidance and protection, burying his small face into the crook of his protector's neck, counting on him to keep them out of harm's way. Jai didn't care what was going on as long as they are able to get away and be safe afterwards._

 _"_ _No! I won't let you have him!" Jai's father's voice sounded even more distant than it had before, like he was fading from a standard photograph through years of wear and tear and just kept fading no matter how hard Jai clings to his father. It, his hold on his father, wasn't enough to keep him here as everything faded into darkness again. The nothingness became present again with everything else as non-existent._

 _Jai curls into himself, shaking from the sadness. The loneliness, for the past two yeasr, had been eating him away on the inside like a dreaded parasite. He had his mother but Jai misses his father. There was a reason for the teen's father's death but he was never told what happened. The undying amount of desperate curiosity over the subject matter would leave him feeling numb sometimes it he thought too much about it, and that was often, numb to a world that would seem to slowly turn into an oblivion all around him as he floated aimlessly; filled with led, yet light as air within._

"Jai, wake up!" immediately after Zare said that Jai's eyes snapped open like someone had flipped a light switch. The brunette glances to his left to see all the boys in the barracks were surround his bunk with expressions of either inquisition or concern. Zare Leonis and Dev Morgan stood the closest to his bunk bed looking the most worried about him than their other roommate, cadet Nahzros Oleg, whom just stood there with his arms crossed over his chest in an impatient and uninterested manner.

Sergeant Currahee threw her hands up in exasperation, "Finally! It took a long time for you to wake up cadet Kell! Now, up and out! You're holding up morning drills!" She did nothing to contain or hide her anger. "You and everyone else in here should take after Morgan here," she pointed at a blue-eyed dark haired teen, "he was up and ready before I even stepped foot in these barracks. Now that," Currahee pauses with a slight glint of pride in her eye, "that is progress I want to see with the rest of you cadets. 'Cause this one started out as a kriffing bed bug. But now, he's an early bird with a blaster. Well what are you waiting? Move, move, move!"

Jai hurriedly got up from bunk, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, and stood next to Dev Morgan, the newest exchange cadet, who expresses the most concern for him then the rest of the Aurek squadron. Well, maybe a close second to Zare.

Dev leans over to whisper in Jai ear, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Jai says but his eyes were filled with uncertainty. Was he fine?

"Are you sure," Dev pressed on.

"Yes," he lied. There was a glint in the other's boy's eyes that, much to Jai's fear, suggested doubt about the answer. Dev knew his friend was hiding something, but didn't know what.

The moment, however, was broken as the both of them jumped at the sound of the dreaded whistle and, on impulse, picked up the pace to catch up with the other cadets.

Brown eyes glances over at the tan-skinned teen. It's not that he doesn't _want_ to tell his friend the truth, he just doesn't have the enough courage nor does he know how to even explain it.

It is definitely a subject he will have to bring up later when they are both able to speak freely without any interruptions. It may also be a conversation they should include Zare into. Leonis is one of the most reliable people he knew within the Empire at the moment, besides Dev, and Jai genuinely likes him, so it would feel wrong to leave him out of it. Plus, it's better to let it all out at once with the both of them at the same time in the same place instead of separately and having to deal with Imperial training, never knowing when he would be available to tell one of them the truth without having to find out from the other cadet. That would make things even more complicated than what they should be.

"Go! Go! Go!" urged the drill sergeant. "Don't keep me waiting!"

Everyone was forced into a jog through the corridors out of barracks. Hurrying so they could be somewhat on schedule once they're out on the fields.

Jai glances over at Dev and Zare. Around lunch or dinner time should be a perfect opportunities to tell them. If not, then maybe at night while everyone else is asleep. If he himself doesn't fall asleep first that is. Good lord, imagine that becoming a cycle of delays day after day with the agony of retaining to urge to tell his friends his story until every layer of frustration that piles up, up, up becomes too tall to bear and comes tumbling down with a crash spilling everything that Jai's wanted to tell his friends but indirectly telling the rest of the cadets? Oleg wouldn't ever let it down for sure. Oleg'll mock him until graduation and would most likely find a way to drag Zare and Dev into it also.

While Jai was debating to himself about the best time to talk to Dev and Zare, elsewhere in the Lothal residential town that was Capital City, a bright red ship landed in the grass fields a short distance from town. A door on the side of the red space ship opened and out came a little figure with big round ears. Looking around with his white-gloved hands on his hips, King Mickey took in a deep breath of the Lothal air and sighs contently at the sweet scent of the spring grass the wind blew in from the fields.

"Nothing smells good like an In-Between world at peace and growing jogan blossoms," King Mickey exclaims.

Another figure, taller and lankier than the king, stayed behind in the ship unwilling to move a foot towards door. King Mickey notices his companion's hesitation and gave him an assuring smile.

"Don't worry," the anthropomorphic mouse says, "this is your home after all." The gray figure shies even further into the ship.

"Hey," King Mickey murmurs in a low volume in hopes of soothing the stressed one, "we've talked about this. I know you've messed up in the past and Lothal is the last place you wanna be. But this is an opportunity for you, a second chance to fix here what you couldn't before. Isn't that what you want?" The creature seemed to be contemplating with his head bowed before he looked back up at the King and mutely nods. "Then trust me," the king held out his hand for the other to take.

Hesitation remained heavily with the taller one for quite a long moment. An internal war between fear and the confidence of wanting to better himself fighting for domination was bizarrely evident on his blank face. Fear lost in that battle for he grabbed a hold of the King's hand and steps out onto the green grass.

King Mickey smiles brightly, "There you go. Now c'mon, we've got a job to do."

Nodding in reply, the both of them head off towards civilization with the King leading him. King Mickey serving as his guide to a better half-life, and his past that has yet to come.


End file.
